This invention relates to product shipping cartons. More particularly, the invention relates to a shipping carton system which provides additional capacity for shipping accessories along with a related main or base product. The invention encompasses an expandable accessory box and a packaging system which utilizes the expandable box along with a primary box. The invention further encompasses a method for accommodating an increased volume of accessories to be packaged together and shipped along with a related product, especially a computer system.
Many types of products may be customized for a particular consumer and then shipped directly to the consumer. For example, portable computers may be shipped with a number of different accessories such as power supplies, chargers, additional drives, and various software media along with hard copy manuals and documentation. The highly customizable nature of these types of products combined with the practice of shipping products directly to the consumer creates problems in the design of shipping cartons or packages for the products. Ideally, shipping cartons should be as compact as possible in order to save shipping costs and the cost of the carton itself. Also, minimizing shipping carton size is desirable for environmental reasons.
One solution to the shipping carton issue for highly customizable products is to design a single carton or box large enough to accommodate any configuration in which the product may be shipped. This solution is wasteful of the material used for the one-size-fits-all box, and wasteful of the material required inside the box for stabilizing the various configurations which may be shipped.
Another solution to the packaging problem is to have a different shipping carton for each different product configuration that could be ordered. This solution, however, is expensive both in terms of the number of cartons which must be designed and in terms of the number of cartons which must be held in inventory. Also, it may be difficult to match the appropriate shipping carton with a particular product configuration for the product packaging step.
Yet another solution for packaging highly customizable products for shipping is to use one small carton for the base product and then completely separate cartons for each optional item which may be purchased along with the base product. However, this solution raises the problem of shipping the resulting multiple cartons to the purchaser and may increase shipping costs.
It is an object of the invention to provide an accessory box capable of conveniently accommodating different volumes of accessories to be shipped together with a base piece of equipment. Another object of the invention is to provide a packaging system and packaging method for accommodating increased volumes of accessories to be shipped together with a base piece of equipment.
In order to accomplish these objects, the invention includes an expandable accessory box that may be configured in either a retracted configuration or an expanded configuration. In the retracted configuration, the expandable accessory box may be used in connection with a first primary box to accommodate both the base piece of equipment (base component), such as a portable computer, and a first volume of accessories to be shipped together with the base component. The first primary box snugly receives both the base component and the accessory box in the retracted configuration. Alternatively, the accessory box according to the invention may be placed in the expanded configuration and used with a second, larger primary box to contain both the base component, the first volume of accessories, and an additional volume of accessories. The second primary box is sized to snugly receive the base component and the accessory box in its expanded configuration. The expandable accessory box together with the two different primary boxes make up the packaging system according to the invention.
As used in this disclosure and the accompanying claims, the term xe2x80x9cvolumexe2x80x9d when referring to accessories means a quantity of the accessories and related material, and not necessarily the absolute value for the space occupied by the accessories and related materials. In particular, the xe2x80x9cfirst volume of accessoriesxe2x80x9d refers to a quantity of accessories and related materials that will properly fit in a first accessory space or volume defined by the present expandable accessory box in its retracted configuration. The xe2x80x9cadditional volume of accessoriesxe2x80x9d likewise refers to a quantity of accessories and related material that will properly fit in an additional accessory space or volume which will be described further below.
The accessory box according to the invention includes a first side and an extension side along with a number of extension members. These extension members may placed in either a retracted position corresponding to the retracted configuration of the accessory box, or an extended position corresponding to the expanded configuration of the accessory box. The space between the two sides of the accessory box define the first accessory volume. However, when the extension members are positioned in their extended position, they extend outwardly from the extension side of the accessory box and function to space the remainder of the box from a wall of the primary box in which the accessory box may be received. This additional space between the extension side of the accessory box and the wall of the primary box in which it is received represents the additional accessory volume.
It is important that the extension members remain in the extended position both while filling primary and accessory boxes and when handling the filled primary and accessory boxes during shipping. Thus, each extension member preferably includes a first retainer device which helps hold the respective extension member in the extended position as desired. Each first retainer device may cooperate with a respective additional retainer device on the primary box in which the expanded accessory box is received in order to hold the extension members in the extended position.
The method of packaging according to the invention includes maintaining stocks of the first primary box, the larger second primary box, and the expandable accessory box. If it is determined that the amount or nature of accessories to the shipped with a base component requires a space larger than the first accessory volume defined by the volume between the first side and extension side of the accessory box, the method includes selecting one of the second primary boxes for shipping the base component and accessories. The method further includes placing the accessory box in its expanded configuration and securing the accessory box in the second primary box. In the secured position, the first retainer device associated with each extension member cooperates with additional retainer devices on the second primary box to hold the accessory box in its expanded configuration.
These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments, considered along with the accompanying drawings.